Available online free at familysearch
- indexed transcript [also available on CD]

If you can add to the information given
above, including additional sources for 1851 census transcripts/indexes, please tell me.

Page updated January 2011

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Make the most of the 1881 census CD

Now that the 1881 census is
available online the following examples as to how to use the CD are less
relevant - but still have some interest so have been retained.

The 1881 census CD is a wonderful source for
the genealogist and local historian, but it has a number of limitations, and the
following postings are designed to explain the limitations, teach a trick or
two, and to show the wide range of activities that can be carried out. Most use
the census returns for Tring as an
example, but the techniques used are applicable for any place.

This describes some of the limitations inherent in the
original census returns, and those which arise from the limitations of the CD
and the viewer originally issued with it. A new
viewer - with more powerful search facilities - is now available.

It is surprising how many people simply look up their
ancestor in the index, and fail to look to see shat else is going on in the
neighbourhood. This example uses the census to identify the principal businesses
in the High Street, Tring.

If you are trying to locate brothers and sisters of your
ancestors a common problem is that they vanish from the records, and you have no
idea where to look. Did they die young? Did the emigrate? Did they move to
another part of the United Kingdom. The 1881 census CD makes it possible to find
many such wanderers - the example listing people from Tring
who were in Devon and Cornwall in the 1881 census.

So you know what occupation your ancestor did - but can you
get some idea about who his employer might be or who his colleagues were. This
series of examples identifies the major employers in Tring, identified
some of the common and less usual occupations in the area, and identifies some
of the temporary workforce who were apparently involved in rebuilding the
church.

A study of where the railway workers at Tring
Station (in the adjacent parish of Aldbury)
lived - and where they came from. The example also identifies railway workers
who had been born in Aldbury but who were
now working in other parts of the country.

I first investigated the life of Lucy
Luck, a straw plaiter who was born in Tring
before the 1881 census CD was available. The earlier posting left a number of
questions unanswered. Using the 1881 census CD her brother George
(whose given name was unknown) was located, together with two candidates for her
sister Charlotte (whose married name was
unknown). Two of the people she lodged with are also identified.

One of the problems with the 1881 census is that you cannot
search address fields. This example looks at how the location of a Hertfordshire
place of birth noted in the London census can be tracked down.

The 1881 Census CD does not contain details of the census
enumerator's route - and this series of examples shows how the route can be
reconstructed and the location of the house found with the aid of online maps.